This post is sponsored by Rodelle Vanilla. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this space possible!

Creme brulee has been one of my long-standing, hands down favorite desserts ever since I really learned how to bake. My dad loves creme brulee and as soon as I learned that it’s really not that hard to make (plus you get to use a torch!), it was one dessert that became part of my baking wheelhouse. I mean, who can resist a creamy vanilla custard base with a fun crunchy sugar topping? Now, why it took me THIS (more…)

A chocolate spiced version of the ultimate holiday cookie, vegan gingerbread gets a dark chocolate twist!

I’ll keep this one short and sweet, because Christmas is almost here and I know we all have presents to wrap/cookies to eat/hot chocolate to spike and there isn’t enough time for it all. As with years past, I’m creating a Christmas cookie recipe in partnership with my favorite (more…)

I know that ice cream doesn’t typically seem like a winter-ish dessert, but really, who refuses ice cream any time of year? I have a distinct memory in high school of standing outside in the rain waiting for an ice cream snowstorm (like a blizzard) treat from my favorite hometown ice cream shop on opening day. In mind my, it totally wasn’t crazy to be standing in the freezing cold rain to just get colder and eat ice cream, right? (more…)

Back in grade school I loved super dorky things like my American Girl dolls (who thought they were the coolest girl because of these?), every single horse thing I could find and of course, Colonial Williamsburg. Oh, you haven’t gone to a place that acts like you are living in the 18oos? Let me tell you, I thought it was freaking awesome when we went to visit Williamsburg in Virginia. They played that awesome hoop game! Everyone lives in cool old houses! Besides for the fact that I got to pretend that I was Felicity from American Girls, I also found out that this magical place also knew how to do tasty baked goods. In the main part of ‘town’ there was a place called the Raleigh Bake Shop and they sold the absolute best baked goods, from pies to cookies, they had it all. My family’s favorite always seemed to be the ginger cakes, which were basically gingerbread cookies, but thicker and puffier and coated with a dusting of flour, from rolling out and cutting. Luckily for me, they also sold a small cookbook that detailed the treats they made in the bakery, so I could make them anytime at home. I haven’t made many other recipes from the book since, but the ginger cakes seem to always find their way into our family’s cookie arsenal year after year. One year, I even went as so far to close off the kitchen from my dad (who loves these cookies) while I made a giant batch of these cookies for him as a Christmas gift. I kept yelling at at my dad ‘You can’t come in here!!’ and trying to keep the cookies under wraps by shutting all the doors and insisting he was banished to the other half of the house for the afternoon, even though I knew he knew what I was doing. Even from an early age, I started showing my love with cookies!

I’m all in and full force into the holiday baking season. Right now, we have no less than 3 types of cookies in the house and maybe even a pie or bar or two. I don’t think you are hearing complaints from anyone in our house right now. I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat flour for these sturdy cookies and the Sparkling Sugar is just perfect to sprinkle on a batch of these gingerbread cookies. These did turn out a bit thinner than I had hoped, but they are still a perfect cross between some of the teeth breaking hard gingerbread cookies out there and the super puffy pillows of ginger cakes that I remember. One of the biggest struggles in vegan baking for me has been making a crispy cookie, especially sans oil or butter. In the end, I figured out that a couple tablespoons of coconut oil does the trick for these gingerbread cookies, while not going too overboard with the fat content. You can go without the sparkling sugar garnish on these cookies, but I think they add a little more sweetness and kind of look like they are dusted with shimmering snow, so why wouldn’t you want that? These also keep well for a few days, so if you need to bake cookies ahead of time that will hold up, these will do the trick.

Thanks to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post. I received product and was compensated for my time, but all opinions are my own.

This post is sponsored by Zevia. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this space possible!

If there’s one thing I forget about during the holiday baking season, it’s cranberries! I’m all about the chocolate and even gingerbread, but usually cranberries get forgotten in the frenzy of holiday baking. Not this year! I teamed up with Zevia to create a fun vegan (more…)

Hi, I'm Abby and I love all things sweet, with a vegan twist! If you have a craving for a rich chocolate cake or love a flaky croissant as much as I do, pull up a chair because you're in the right place!